


Reading Between the Pines

by angryplantbabe



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater, The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, the pine guard are all really bad at keeping secrets but what else is new, this was supposed to be for a network event but i procrastinated so now it's just a Thing, weird horrific creatures, who needs to study for finals when you have fic to write
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2019-09-16 15:38:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16956732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angryplantbabe/pseuds/angryplantbabe
Summary: The Gansey follow strange energy readings to Kepler, West Virginia. They don't find Glendower, but they do find the Pine Guard, and all of their plans change. The crossover AU no one asked for, but everyone needed.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place sometime after the events of Blue Lily, Lily Blue and TAZ's water abomination arc, although I may have fudged the timelines a little bit to make this work.
> 
> Thank you so much to my friends Jenna (https://richardcampbells.tumblr.com) and Megan (https://tirelintes.tumblr.com) for beta'in this chapter <3
> 
> I plan on making this a longer thing, but it might take a while with uni and whatnot. In the meantime, I'm more active on my tumblr, https://hollyjollyminyard.tumblr.com, so maybe check me out there? Anyways enjoy the fic~

Gansey knew they'd left Virginia when the Pig's radio cut off. Normally he didn't even bother to turn it on because the audio was either garbled or absent, but now it served as a warning that they'd entered the U.S. National Radio Quiet Zone-- and, more importantly, the Monongahela National Forest.

"Take a left," Adam said. He was sitting in the passenger seat, an honor that was only permitted because Ronan hadn't wanted to hold the map. It was balanced on his legs right now; a thick black marker drove resolutely north until it stopped at a circle somewhere in the forest, which sat next to a single white-inked word: _Kepler_.

All throughout November, signs kept pointing the five of them towards West Virginia: Fox Way divinations, accounts from ancient books, even Adam's connection to the ley lines spoke of strange energy readings up north. Finally, a few days before Aglionby's winter break, they decided to find answers. Adam himself had scryed the location, and after getting the okay from Maura, they were prepared to spend a few days in the area. Gansey didn't like being away from Henrietta for so long, but something in him, the part that was good at _finding_ things, told him to keep driving.

"It's beautiful," Blue said. Gansey glanced into the rearview mirror to see her smiling out at the dense pines.

She was right; the view ahead was lined with more evergreens reaching upwards, the oranges and pinks of the sunset peering out between the gaps of the elegantly curved branches, mountains sloping gently on the horizon line. It was quainter and more grounded in reality than Cabeswater, but just as breathtaking, two different flavors of beauty in two different states.

Adam looked from the road to the map. “Park here.” They’d reached the point where their path ventured into the woods, where the Pig couldn’t follow.

Gansey found a place on the shoulder where shrubbery and shadows almost hid the car. He parked, but his hand froze on the keys. “It’s getting dark. Maybe we should spend the night in Kepler.” 

“It’s only 4:30,” Adam said. “Besides, I got the sense that whatever’s going on is happening today. If we wait the night, we might miss it.” 

With a sigh, Gansey got out of the car. Blue handed him a flashlight and a headlamp, her fingers brushing against his. He wanted to memorize her touch; he wanted to hold her hand more firmly in his and thank her for giving him light. But they merely exchanged a look and entered the forest.

The walk was short and uneventful. Halfway through, Ronan and Noah gleefully broke into a chorus of the Murder Squash song, but the others were quick to shut them down, at which point Ronan took revenge by whistling a grating, repetitive melody. His grin widened when Blue shot him a glare. He and Noah fist bumped.

“We could leave you stranded out here, you know,” she said.

“You wouldn’t abandon your boy,” Noah replied.

Adam stopped walking. “Ronan, if you’re done,” he said, “We’re here." 

Gansey frowned. Night had fallen, but a thorough sweep of their flashlights showed that this spot wasn’t any different from the rest of the forest. There were no strange markings, no obvious clearings, nothing that screamed _magic_. “Does anyone feel anything from the lines?”

As they shook their heads, they heard the something crashing through the brush, rapidly approaching. Judging by the sheer volume of sound it created, it was large.

Blue pulled out her switchblade, and Adam and Ronan glanced at each other. In the distance, Gansey thought he could see specks of washed-out, greenish light.

Then they grew closer, and closer, and he realized they weren’t just specks.

They were eyes. 

“Maryfuck Jesus _shitballs_ ,” Ronan swore as the thing was close enough for their flashlights to reveal. Noah let out a little yelp before disappearing.

The _thing_ came to a screeching halt when it saw them. It was larger than a bear, and its thin grey skin was stretched so thinly that Gansey could see bone and muscle. There was something rabbitlike in the shape of its legs, tense and ready to spring away, but its paws ended in uncannily long claws covered in blood.

It was decidedly _not Glendower._  

“What the hell?” Blue yelled, taking a step back.

Behind the beast, a vehicle resembling a snow plow emerged. Immediately the creature set off, sprinting between Adam and Blue and into the night.

Gansey turned his eyes to the plow. Three figures were exiting, and for a second, he thought one of them had _fire_ in their hand.

“Aw, shit,” one of them said in an Appalachian drawl. Adam turned his flashlight on the figure to reveal a man in his mid-40’s, tall and brown-skinned, wearing a forest ranger hat. “Aw, shit, uh— ma’am? May I see some ID please? It’s, uh, it’s illegal for minors to carry blades here.”

Blue stared at the man, then in the direction the creature had gone, and back at the man. “I think you have bigger problems to worry about than a _switchblade_ ,” she replied. “Did you _see_ that thing?”

“Yeah, we did, and, uh, I know it looks weird but you see, what happened was, a bunch of high school kids thought it would be funny to spray a bear with, uh, with glow-in-the-dark paint? No, _fuck_ . No, I’m kidding that was just two friends of mine in a, in a really good costume. See, we’re performing Bunnicula? And— _fuck_ ! God _damn_ it!!”

As the man continued to spout profanity, Gansey stared at him in consternation. Even Henry Cheng was a better liar than this man, and Henry had insisted he hated Madonna while wearing Like A Virgin booty shorts during Aglionby’s Pajama Day.

The woman Gansey had thought was holding fire sighed. Her hair was done up in a pompadour undercut, and the light from the headlamps glinted off several of her facial piercing. “Don’t listen to him, he’s high.” 

“Hey, I’m technically on duty right now. I would prefer if you didn’t say that I, a forest ranger and actual agent of the law, was stoned at work.”

The third figure, a short and squat man with a bushy beard, said, “Forgive my friends and their, ah, whimsical musings. What you saw was—”

“Some weird horror rabbit thing?” Ronan asked.

“With bioluminescent eyes and murder claws?” Adam added wryly.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” the woman said, although her friends looked apprehensive. 

The part of Gansey that was good at finding things thudded against his chest, whispering, _Look here, look here, look here._

“Listen,” he said. “Whatever it was, we know what we saw, and it wasn’t a bear. It wasn’t anything anyone’s ever seen before. And if you know what that was, I’d like you to tell me.”

The newcomers looked at each other and nodded wearily. “All right. Fine,” said the forest ranger. “But it’s getting late. You should probably come with us.

Gansey was pretty sure Maura would murder him if he let himself and the others get into a car with strangers of dubious character. Or maybe she’d have Mr. Gray do that. Either way, he cleared his throat and said, “I’ll take my car and meet you there.”

“Your... your car?” The ranger scanned the forest, perplexed by the non-presence of a vehicle

“It’s parked on the side of the road a ways back,” Blue explained. “We didn’t want to drive into the forest and cause any damage.”

“Well, thank you, I can certainly appreciate that. But are you sure you’re all right getting back to your vehicle?”

“We’ll be fine. But could you give us the address?” Gansey asked.

The woman sighed. “You ever heard of Amnesty Lodge?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Pine Guard and the Gangsey clash over their respective secrets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops, it's been a while! Sorry about that, folks. There was a lot more going on this semester than I anticipated, but don't worry-- I have not forgotten about this fic <3\. See the end notes for more about updates!
> 
> Thank you all for your kind words! I thought that only a couple of my friends would enjoy this, so it's quite lovely to know that other people have similar taste in fandoms as me.
> 
> Finally, any many thanks to Jenna (richardcampbells/vcidfish on tumblr) and Megan (sargents on tumblr) for being such fantastic beta readers!!

“Mama, Barclay!” Aubrey called as she bounded into Amnesty Lodge, quickly checking that a certain federal agent was not around to pry. Ned and Duck slunk in sheepishly behind her. “We fucked up again!”

If Mama was surprised, she didn’t show it; she merely pinched the bridge of her nose, the ease with which she performed the motion suggesting that she’d done it many times before. “What did ya do this time?”

“Five, ah, sharp youths stumbled onto the latest abomination, and we were unable to dissuade them from seeking answers. They’re on their way as we speak,” Ned offered.

“Fuck, Ned!” As Mama shouted, the merry tinkling at the piano halted, and everyone in the Lodge quietly began pretending not to eavesdrop. “That’s a lot of people.”

“But good news. We found the abomination! It’s a weird bony rabbit-y thing,” Aubrey said.

“That doesn’t change the fact that you let five people discover our secret! How much did they see exactly?”

Removing his ranger hat, Duck said, “Uhh, just the abomination, and maybe Aubrey’s magic. We weren’t anywhere near the gate or anything.”

“I’ll see if I can’t convince them they saw a bear or something—”

“—already tried that,” Duck muttered.

“Did you try that?” Mama asked. “You specifically, Duck?”

“Uhh, yep.”

“Well of course it didn’t work, then. I figure I might as well give it a try, but if they don’t believe me, let’s only tell them what’s necessary. Nothing about Sylvain, nothing about Amnesty Lodge. Got it?” Mama fixed the three of them with a sharp glare, producing three sharp nods.

Aubrey was conflicted; on one hand, she felt fiercely protective of her home and her family, and any intruders made her wary. On the other hand, these kids had an air about them that was distinctly right in a way that Agent Stern wasn’t. When she’d fought her first abomination a few months ago in the forest with Ned and Duck, she’d felt as if all the bones in her spinal column had finally aligned, and something deep within her chest settled at last. Those kids gave her the same sensation.

“When should they be arriving, anyways?” Barclay asked.

As if on cue, the faint roar of a motor, growing louder, startled them from their discussions.

“Sounds like your Continental, Ned,” Duck said.

The five of them crowded by the window and pressed their noses against the glass. A bright orange, old-looking car rolled into the parking lot, at which point Ned exhaled in admiration. The look on his face reminded Aubrey of her expression when she’d first gotten Dr. Harris Bonkers, Ph.D.

It took her a moment to reconcile the boy who emerged from the driver’s seat with the car he was driving. She hadn’t gotten a good look at any of these kids in the woods due to the glare of their headlamps, but now she saw that his polo shirt was the precise color of her dyed hair and the glittering threads in her vest. He had perfect windswept hair and— oh no, were those boat shoes? As the boy walked through the door, Aubrey’s shoulders automatically tensed. He looked just like the kids of her parents’ snooty rich acquaintances who’d mocked her for not attending college. If it weren’t for that car, oddly full of charm and incongruent with its owner’s appearance, she might have hated him right away.

“Oh,” he said, “Oh, this is lovely.” His voice was overflowing with old money Virginia drawl.

“Glad you like it,” Mama replied. “I’m Mama, the owner of Amnesty Lodge. My friends here told me you ran into a bear?”

“Like fuck that was a bear,” snarled the boy who stalked into the lodge next. This one was completely different; he was the edge of a razor gleaming in a headlight, all ripped black clothing and eyes like an iceberg. Aubrey eyed his shaved head in admiration, but couldn’t help bristling at his tone.

The other three piled into the lodge as one, exchanging uneasy looks. Aubrey had been living in Amnesty Lodge for about four months, and seeing these strangers huddle together in the lobby was odd; their presence rewound time, made her see it for the first time once again. It became less of a homey refuge and more of a charming little ski resort. Unlike with Stern, it didn’t feel like an invasion, but it was a strange sensation nonetheless.

There was only one girl, who Aubrey had privately named Miss Switchblade and who wore an odd assortment of clothing that was almost reminiscent of a bird’s nest. The boy to Miss Switchblade’s left was blonde, pale, and smudgy in a way that Aubrey’s mind refused to clarify.

“Ronan,” chided the boy on the right. He had light brown skin and wary eyes lined with exhaustion. There was something tense and guarded in his shoulders.

Before the razor boy could respond, Duck jumped in. “You know, I just realized that we never told you our names. That’s Barclay, the lodge cook, and I’m forest ranger Duck Newton, it’s a nickname.”

“Aubrey!”

“My name is Ned Bunnicula Chicane. What?” he said as Duck shot him a glance. “You put it on my mind!”

“I’m Gansey, and this is Blue Sargent, Ronan Lynch, and Adam Parrish,” said the boy in the polo, pointing to his friends as he rattled them off. His finger skipped straight over the smudgy one.

“Blue?” Aubrey asked.

“Yeah.” The girl stared back at her in challenge. There wasn’t a single scrap of blue in her outfit as far as Aubrey could see.

Mama cleared her throat. “What about your smudgy friend back there? What’s his name?”

“...you can see him?” asked Gansey after a pause.

“Can you?” Aubrey shot back.

There was another awkward moment. The kids all looked meaningfully at each other. Across the room, Aubrey frowned at Duck, who shrugged in return. Something odd was definitely going on with these kids. 

“I’m Noah!” the smudgy boy offered.

“Nice to meet y’all,” Mama said. “What brings you kids here to Kepler?”

Before they could respond, Gansey locked eyes with someone behind Aubrey and broke into a smile. It was a polite, measured expression and, as far as Aubrey could tell, not quite real. There was genuine warmth behind it, but he looked more like a portrait than an actual boy.

“Agent Stern?” Gansey asked.

“Richard Gansey!” Stern replied cheerfully, walking into Aubrey’s view to shake the boy’s hand. “Are you here for the Bigfoot tape like me, or are you still searching for that king?”

King? What king?

“The latter. How’d your mothman investigation go?”

“Oh, that? It turned out to be a hoax. You know, I believe in a lot of things that others would scoff at, but I honestly think the mothman doesn’t exist.”

“You two know each other?” Aubrey asked, frowning.

The kids seemed to pick up on her chilly tone, but Stern just laughed. “I ran into this remarkable young man about two years ago in Illinois—”

“You thought the mothman was in Illinois?” Adam asked wryly.

Aubrey examined the rest of Gansey’s friends. Almost all of them had a mixture of amusement and annoyance on their faces, but Ronan— Ronan had a feral curl to his lips, and the tension in his shoulders reminded her of a guard dog. She frowned at Mama. Even if the rest of these kids neither knew nor liked Agent Stern, Gansey certainly did, and that was suspicious in and of itself.

She made a list of mysteries surrounding these kids. One, what they were doing in the woods. Two, why they hadn’t thought the Pine Guard could see Noah. Three, what king Gansey was searching for, and how that had crossed his path with Stern’s.

“It was a possibility,” Stern said. “Well, I’m going to dinner in town. See you around, Gansey.”

Blue and Adam glanced at each other as Stern left, the curl of their lips carrying some sort of inside joke. “Do you think we could get something to eat before we talk? We haven’t eaten anything since we got on the road and I’m mighty hungry,” Blue asked Barclay.

“Gansey, you brought your credit card, right?” Noah asked with a grin.

Barclay hesitated; Aubrey could see him trying to decide between delaying the inevitable and hurrying these kids out the door as soon as possible. “Yeah, sure,” he said at length. “What can I get you?”

“Oh, you should cook them up five of your exceptional Monte Cristos!” Ned said.

“Just four please,” Blue corrected. “And some iced tea if y’all have it?”

Mystery number four: why Blue would only order four sandwiches seconds after she claimed to be starving. With every minute, these kids raised more questions, and Aubrey had no clue how to get answers without revealing the Lodge’s own secrets.

As Barclay left for the kitchen, they pushed a few dining tables together to make room for the nine of them.

“Now then,” Mama said, “where were we?”

“Y’all were gonna tell us what the deal was with that rabbit creature?” Blue supplied.

“Ah, right, y’all think you saw a monster.”

“We don’t think. We know,” Blue replied.

“Are you sure? ‘Cause it gets mighty dark in those woods. It’s pretty easy to mistake a bear for Bigfoot or Mothman, especially after you’ve visited the Cryptonomica.”

Gansey blinked. “Visited the what?”

Ned smiled. “The Cryptonomica, down off State Route 16055. It’s the world’s best purveyor of the bizarre and macabre!”

“You see,” Mama continued, sending a pointed glare at Ned from across the table, “There are dozens of monster sightings but that’s just folks like Ned drumming up business, or kids with overactive imaginations. Hell, I bet if you search up ‘Monongahela rabbit cryptid hoax’ when you get back home, you’ll find a half dozen results or so.”

Ronan muttered something to Adam, who smirked. Aubrey only caught the word “bullshit”.

“Ronan,” Gansey chided.

“No, he’s right,” Blue said. “I didn’t come here to be patronized.”

“What’d you come here for, then? Why were you all the way out there in the woods?” Aubrey asked. 

The effect was instantaneous; Adam’s face shuttered close while the others turned to stare at her.

It was Gansey who finally responded. “I wasn’t aware that we needed permission to explore the woods.”

“You don’t,” Duck said, “but I’m surprised y’all were out there at night. Aren’t your parents worried?”

“They know we’re here,” Blue replied icily, “although that’s none of your—”

“Why are you deflecting?” asked Adam. His tone was polite, but Aubrey could see the tension in his shoulders. He was smart, this one. “We know that wasn’t a bear. Why can’t you just admit that?”

Aubrey laughed. Even to her own ears, it sounded forced. “Sorry, but—”

“Okay,” Gansey said, cutting her off. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking; his spoke like a young politician or a kid on the high school debate team, confident but even. “Clearly we’re getting nowhere with this. Listen, we are all intelligent adults here, and it’s an insult to your intelligence and to ours to obfuscate what we all already know. That thing was supernatural. You know something about it. Either tell us so we can stop going around in circles, or admit that you don’t want to help us so we can stop wasting everyone’s time.”

Silence. Aubrey didn’t want to give up Kepler’s secrets, but from the look on Mama’s face, she knew that it wasn’t wise to just let these kids go, not when they so firmly believed in what they’d seen.

Finally, Mama sighed and said, “Do you have lots of experience with the supernatural, then?”

“About as much as you do,” Adam replied.

“Let’s try this,” Aubrey said, standing up and bracing her hands on the table. “Right now we don’t trust you and you don’t trust us, so how about I count down from three, and when I get to one, we all say a secret, and that secret does not leave this room. Sound good?” Her stomach roiled at the thought of what she was about to give up, but no one objected, so... “Three, two, one. I have magic.”

At the same time that Aubrey confessed, Noah said, “I’ve been dead for seven years,” and Duck offered, “I actually really like CrossFit.”

Nobody else spoke besides the three of them.

“Well, I’m disappointed but not surprised,” she sighed. Then the meaning of what Noah said hit her. “Wait, you’re dead? Like a ghost?”

“Fire powers,” Adam repeated, staring at Aubrey with renewed interest. 

Ronan was glaring at Noah. Mama was glaring at Aubrey. She’d meant to diffuse the tension in the room, but somehow it had ramped up. Underneath the table, her leg was bouncing like crazy; she was sure everyone could feel it. They were going nowhere, and she’d made everything worse, and—

Just like that, her hand caught aflame. Now all five of the kids were staring at her.

She doused it as quickly as possible, but it didn’t change anything. After all, it was only confirming what she’d already confessed.

“All right, four Monte Cristos coming right up,” Barclay said. There was no way he hadn’t heard every word of their conversation, especially given how tightly knit his brow was. When he set a place in front of Noah, the boy passed it to Blue.

“Oh,” Aubrey said. “Because ghosts don’t eat anything.”

Gansey sighed. “Yeah. Yeah. If we tell you our story, will you tell us yours? And it’ll all be confidential?”

“Sure,” Ned replied, visibly relieved. “We can do that thing where the propellor spins.”

“...what?” Adam asked.

“You know, that thing on TV when the propellor spins and when you return to the scene, everyone's questions have been answered and they all go “Oh, that makes sense!’” Aubrey said.

Ronan snorted. “Yeah, because that’s how real life works."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More on updates: The bad news is, I'm a university student who's juggling a full course load, extracurriculars, and multiple WIPs. The good news is that summer is nearly here, and I hope that I'll have more time to write then. However, I don't want to promise a regular update schedule because I know I won't be able to stick to it.
> 
> That being said, I'm very much invested in finishing this fic; the rough outline I sketched out wasn't too long, and it'll be nice to have a longform work to look back on.
> 
> If you want updates on my progress between chapters, head on over to either of my tumblr blogs. My main is garfieldthedealspaladin, and my book blog is zeniksnina. I'm more than happy to answer some questions there, and am much more active on Tumblr.


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